Bronze

The Iliad and The Odyssey took place at the end of the Bronze Age and the beginning of the Iron Age; the use of bronze came to different parts of the world at different times but, in Greece, the Bronze Age is considered to be roughly 3000-1200 BCE.

Bronze was a quantum leap in metallurgy because it required very hot furnaces and the combination of copper (which was relatively easy to obtain) and tin (which was not native to Greece or anywhere nearby); metals such as gold, silver and copper can be found in a relatively pure state and can be easily molded and cast whereas bronze is a combination of eighty percent copper and twenty percent tin and requires a great deal of preparation and forethought; the tin used for the production of Greek bronze was obtained from either the British Isles or from islands in the Indian Ocean.